Haley King of Auburn Hills, left and Savanna Trottier of Lapeer play dome hockey in the game room at United Shore's new headquarters in Pontiac, Mich. on Wednesday, June 20, 2018.(Photo: Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)

A workplace packed with amenities and conveniences can sometimes be a warning sign.

Free Red Bull, energy bars and fancy coffee machines could indicate the boss wants employees working long hours. And game rooms and fitness centers can be a sly way to keep people near the office for more of the day.

But the numerous amenities inside mortgage company United Shore Financial Services' new Silicon Valley-inspired headquarters in Pontiac — a massage room, hair salon, on-site doctors, full-size basketball court — are simply there to make employees' lives easier and better, not cajole them into grueling 60-plus-hour workweeks, according to President and CEO Mat Ishbia.

That is because United Shore, which plans to relocate all its 2,500 workers from Troy early next month, is keeping its "Firm 40" rule that employees work no more than 40 hours per week.

That policy, aimed at preventing burnout and reducing turnover, has made United Shore somewhat unique in the mortgage business, where frontline jobs often require long working hours and sometimes weekends.

"We have the same things as Silicon Valley, but we don't want you working 70-80 hours. We want you working 40; give us all eight hours each day, then go home," Ishbia, 38, said during a building tour.

He added, "I don't want them to stay here the whole day. I want to make their life so great that they want to be a part of this team and United Shore forever."

United Shore has taken over the massive 610,000-square-foot Hewlett Packard Enterprise building, 585 South Blvd., on the outskirts of Pontiac. The building previously housed Hewlett Packard and several other tenants, all of whom have moved out.

The building is more than twice the size of United Shore's old Troy headquarters, 1414 E. Maple Road, where parking became so tight that the company bought an extra parking lot and ran employee shuttles.

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The foyer of United Shore's new headquarters in Pontiac, Mich. on Wednesday, June 20, 2018.(Photo: Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)

Ishbia said he and his father, Jeff Ishbia, will continue to own and lease out the Troy building as the new main office for Health Alliance Plan. The health insurer is moving all its Southfield and some of its Detroit offices to the site.

United Shore chose the Pontiac location for the large building and geographic convenience. More Shore employees actual live closer to the new headquarters than they did to Troy.

"We just ran out of space at the old building," Ishbia said. "We needed to find a building that could fit everybody under one roof, without having 20 levels."

In February, the company gave employees larger-than-usual pay raises in preparation for Pontiac's income tax of 1% for residents and 0.5% for non-residents. The City of Troy doesn't have an income tax.

Still, Pontiac's income tax is lower than Detroit's (2.4% for residents, 1.2% non-residents). Yet Detroit has still managed to attract new business to its downtown, most notably mortgage giant Quicken Loans in 2010.

Ishbia said United Shore did consider Detroit as a possible location, but decided against the city, primarily because it would have meant a longer commute for many employees.

"We looked everywhere, but the truth is, Detroit wasn't the place for us," Ishbia said. "The most important thing about our growth is not about us transforming a city. We do want to do great for Pontiac, but it's about our 2,500 people.

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Dave Dolinshek of Rochester Hills walks through the trophy and company pillar display in the foyer of United Shore's new headquarters in Pontiac, Mich. on Wednesday, June 20, 2018.(Photo: Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)

"And quite honestly, we asked our people and they didn't want to drive to Detroit. ... People don't want to go to Detroit because that's 40 minutes both ways. And we're a work-life balance shop, so we want you to be close to home so you can be with your family."

The Pontiac building would be big enough to accommodate up to 4,700 workers, should United Shore grow that big. The headcount was 400 in 2010, when the company was situated in Birmingham.

United Shore is in the wholesale mortgage-lending business, which is the underwriting of loans generally made by mortgage brokers, credit unions and small banks. So most of Shore's direct clients are mortgage brokers.

That is a different business model than the direct-to-consumer mortgage lending Quicken Loans is known for.

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Employees fill the floor in the United Shore Financial Services new headquarter building in Pontiac on Wednesday, June 20, 2018.(Photo: Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)

United Shore has been the nation's No. 1 wholesale mortgage lender since 2015, originating $8.1 billion in loans in just the first quarter of this year, which is about a 19% share of the wholesale market, according to industry publication Inside Mortgage Finance.

United Shore borrows the money for its loans through lines of credit from financial institutions. Shore then packages the mortgages and sells nearly all of them to the government-backed mortgage enterprises Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae.

Although the overall mortgage business is forecast to shrink this year because of rising interest rates and less refinancing activity, Ishbia said he expects United Shore to grow because its mortgage broker clients have been seeing upticks in business.

Industry experts say that brokers tend to do better when the mortgage market leans more toward home purchases than refinancings.

Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said the current market is about three-quarters purchase, one-quarter refinancing.

“So this is a market that plays towards the strength of many brokers," Fratantoni said.

Ishbia insists that consumers are best served by mortgage brokers because brokers can shop around to different lenders to find clients the best deals. By comparison, consumers who walk into a bank branch or call up a lending company only get the deals of that particular bank or lender.

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A lounge space at United Shore Financial Services on Wednesday, June 20, 2018. The mortgage company has relocated into a new 610,000-square-foot space in Pontiac. (Photo: Cameron Pollack, Detroit Free Press)

"More and more people are learning that you don't go directly to Quicken or Wells (Fargo) or Chase, you go to an independent mortgage broker, and then they will take you to the right place, whether its Quicken or us or Flagstar, and give you a better deal."

Quicken Loans still does more than twice as much mortgage origination business as United Shore, according to the industry rankings.

United Shore's Chief People Officer, Laura Lawson, toured the headquarters of Google, Twitter, YouTube, Zappos and other hot companies to scout ideas for the Pontiac building's new interior.

The final design is unique to United Shore. Many of the building's rooms have local themes. For instance, there is a Silverdome room and a Joe Louis room, each containing rows of actual seats from the now-demolished Pontiac Silverdome or the now-empty Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

And the company is entering talks to get seats from the Palace of Auburn Hills.

"The fact that all the stadiums were closing in harmony with this worked out well for timing," Lawson said lightheartedly.

Earlier this year Oakland County approved a brownfields plan that will reimburse United Shore for up to $2.3 million in costs for cleaning up soil contamination at the Pontiac site. The money will come from the property's future property taxes.